Well I just wanted to say hello. I have done a lot of reading on this site over the last couple of days. I received a new dovo straight razor fromMy wife for my birthday. I had mentioned that I was sick and tired of paying for the expensive cartridge blades an told my wife I was probably going to just beat the system by not shaving anymore! Well my wife dislikes facial hair so much that I got a new straight razor for my b day. Now I had never considered this before but have fully embraced the idea especially when she said this was a blade that could last for my lifetime. Since opening the gift I have done a lot of reading on this site. Checked out a few videos and found it all to be very informative. Especially learning what a strope is. My wife never said anything when I commented on it but I thought for sure my strope was a new 3 point harness for my AK until I got onto this site and got a little learned. Haha. To all the members of SRP I want to say thank you for all your contributions. I took all that reading in and found it all very helpful for my first straight razor shave last night. All in all it went pretty well. Most of my face is still in tact! Lol just kidding. no oops moments other than fouling up my strope by nicking the blade a couple of times at the tip. I will nevertheless be sending it out to be honed. I look forward to many more shaves. Kind of funny I never thought I would say that! As I'm sure all on here understand I have found a new joy in a task I never really thought about before other than with contempt. So again thank you SRP and hello.